Fight over city bag fee resurfaces as implementation nears

Opponents of a five-cent fee on plastic and paper bags are marshaling their forces in Albany to stop the city from implementing it before it takes effect next month.

The battle has been ongoing for years — first between factions in the City Council and then between the Council and legislators in Albany. When the Council finally approved the fee in May, state Sen. Simcha Felder got a bill passed in the upper house effectively preventing the fee, which he calls onerous to low- and middle-income New Yorkers.

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But supporters say the fee will change New Yorkers’ behavior, eliminating thousands of tons of non-biodegradable material from the waste stream, sewers and streets.

The Assembly made a deal with Council leadership to delay implementation while negotiations were underway to reach a compromise. According to people on both sides of the fight, no real talks were ever held.

Now the fee will be take effect Feb. 15 unless Felder, of Brooklyn, and his allies can push a new bill through the Legislature to prevent New York City from enacting the law.

Felder is taking the fight directly to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"For a liberal mayor who constantly talks about the 1 percent, this is the reverse. The mayor has decided to tax the other 99 percent,” Felder said in an interview Friday. “Now the mayor is going to be responsible for it. There's no question in my mind that it's the mayor implementing it.''

Felder and a roster of bipartisan legislators have scheduled a press conference for Sunday morning at City Hall to push for a repeal.

Supporters of the nickel fee say they have the law on their side.

“A majority of the City Council voted to adopt it,” said Councilman Brad Lander, who has been fighting hard for the bill. “It's cowardly of Senator Felder to bully New York City. We adopted this democratically.”

Lander is tying opposition to the bill to President-elect Donald Trump.

"With Trump and the GOP Congress rolling back environmental protections and bullying cities, it would be shameful for Albany to join them,” he said. “Don't they have more important work to do on behalf of the people of New York?"

Lander and his allies have promised to provide reusable bags to anyone who needs them.

But opponents say the fee represents a tax by another name on poor and working people already struggling to make ends meet.

“New Yorkers have a hard enough time surviving and paying their rent without being driven out of their minds with new taxes,” Felder said. “You’re nickel-and-diming people and it's just happening over and over again.”

Even the use of the word ‘tax’ as opposed to ‘fee’ is a source of contention. The five-cent penalty goes back to the retailers, not the city. That makes it technically a fee. But Felder and opponents call it a tax by a different name. To levy a new tax, the city has to get approval from Albany.

Opponents are trying to get the bill passed before February and are expected to debate it in a Senate committee Tuesday. Once approved by the Senate, the Assembly will have to take it up and Gov. Andrew Cuomo would have to sign it.

Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Robin Levine, a City Council spokesperson, said in a statement that the governing body "is fully committed to reducing the scourge of wasteful plastic bags in our City. We have a proud record of making NYC greener and more sustainable and it’s outrageous that NYC is being unfairly targeted for enacting legislation that mirror the laws adopted in Suffolk County and Long Beach.”

Michael Whyland, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, said no agreement has been reached on the proposed legislation.

“We’re still hoping to come to a resolution with the city,” Whyland said. “Last year they had agreed to delay the effective date until February 15, so we are still having conversations."

Felder said the delay was by design.

“Delaying it was a strategy hoping that it would be delayed to February and people would forget,” he said. “I may be nuts, but I'm not stupid.”

De Blasio’s office defended the bill, saying it already represents a compromise.

“The Council passed a bill that struck the right balance. It reduced reliance on single-use bags and incentivized the use of reusable bags while safeguarding consumers with logical exemptions to protect low-income New Yorkers,” spokesman Raul Contreras said in an email. “This is the type of progressive and environmentally conscious action that helps create a more sustainable City. We are going to continue to work with our partners in the city council and Albany on implementation of this legislation.”

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include a statement from the spokesperson for the City Council.